Ferguson man accidentally shot by neighbor, no charges filed

St. Louis County, Missouri – Andre Milton was in the bathroom of his Ferguson apartment when a woman shot at him from an upstairs apartment. Police caught the shooter, but prosecutors declined to press charges.

“I don’t understand why they weren’t charged, even though it was a so-called accident,” Milton said.

The bodycam video shows Ferguson police officers who responded to the incident talking about how close Milton came to death.

“If he had been sitting upright, he would have been dead,” an officer said. “He probably would have been shot in the head or in the chest.”

The shooter left the scene, while her relative told police she was concerned for her family’s safety.

“If he doesn’t understand that it was just an accident, then an accident is an accident,” the relative said.

Later in the video, Milton expressed his frustration with the police after returning from the hospital.

“I have kids upstairs. Why is your gun out there?” he said.

Police confiscated the shooter’s gun, which they believed to be legal, and also referred the case to the St. Louis County District Attorney’s Office for second-degree assault with criminal negligence, a felony.

The shooting occurred in December 2020. Milton said he called FOX 2 and said he never heard what happened to his case, even though charges were dismissed in May 2021.

“I got the information from you. I went to the PA office myself and they basically said the same thing,” Milton said.

The district attorney’s office sent the following statement to FOX 2: “Not every accident is a crime. While this shooting was tragic, our staff did not believe there was sufficient evidence to suggest that the individual whose gun accidentally discharged while being cleaned had committed a crime.”

We also spoke to the shooter, whose name we are not naming because she was not charged. She said she cooperated with police and never got her gun back.

“It still shakes me to this day,” said Milton. He said he carried the bullet in his body for 18 months before finding a doctor to remove it. His emotional scars remain. “Every loud noise, just the memory of it – being hit – I still feel the pain.”

Milton wants his children to grow up in a safer world and hopes the debate about the consequences of his shooting will make a difference for someone else.